


I love to watch this, and it just... it grounds you. You're just playing games at the end of the day.

by largerock



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Friends on the internet, Melancholy, Morbid thoughts, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, i think i will write romance eventually but i do not know when
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24017173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/largerock/pseuds/largerock
Summary: A few shorts. A few games, a few dreams.For this, she continues to live.2020/06/14 - Rinko's last day of NFO
Comments: 33
Kudos: 36





	1. Daisuke Tobari's Guitar

The storage room light flickered just imperceptibly as she looked over the boxes and half-wrapped equipment piled up around everywhere. Guess it was starting to go, thought Marina. She stared out into the distance without focusing on anything in particular. The lightbulb cast a warm glow wherever it reached, over a knee-deep sea of outdated speakers and obsolete amps and cardboard boxes with bubble wrap sticking out the tops. The wood flooring seemed to have a rich orange rosiness under that light. That was just how wood ought to look, you'd think.

But maybe it was too bright. Too rosy. Marina clicked off the light switch and gazed into the room again. Faintly lit darkness, shapes illuminated by what little light came through the hallway outside. Comfortingly dark and empty. Much better. That was the way it should look. A place for things to gather disuse. She wasn't in the mood to see everything here in sharp and cheery clarity. Maybe later, if she had to come back to dig around for the worn-out set of cables, or pull out the shorter stepladder from behind the spare mattress and the scratched-up table leaned upright against the wall someday, that light would be needed again. But not now. Just wasn't right for this.

Out of habit, a slightly out-of-tune E flat chord. Barely out of tune, almost melodic. In a song, in a practice or a live, it would have been at home. But she didn't want to hear it now. An awful sound. 

She took her hand off the strings and hugged the guitar slung across her body closer to herself. Even now, there was something comfortable about the press of its familiar shape and edges. 

One more time, for old times' sake, she thought. Played the first few notes of...

...Mm.

...We had some good times, didn't we? 

There was a familiar ache. Marina felt it pulling down on her shoulders, down her legs to the soles of her sore feet, and gave into it slowly, lowering herself gingerly with the gradual, ill-fated certainty of a collapsing water tower. One leg folding at a time until at last she was left on her back gazing at the shadows of the ceiling. The hard surface beneath her head wasn't so uncomfortable, for someone who had spent a lot of time lying down these days.

Cradled that guitar in her arms and stared into the colourless dark.

For a moment, Marina Tsukishima was 18, and aimless. Classmates rushing about, running to cram classes, heads stuck in study guides, milling around the grades posted in the hallway.

A glimpse of laughter, a humid summer, leaning on the counter of that empty convenience store, the warmth of five bodies pulling each other in for a hug, flashing images on an arcade cabinet. Trying to recall something else, but without thinking, she'd circled back to those momentary scenes once more. She gave up. Laughter, summer. 

...Wouldn't do much good to spend so much time thinking back.  
She became aware of herself again. It was now. She was here. A little chilly in this room. She didn't want to get up, but it was getting close to opening time. Probably.

She sat up just enough to slide the guitar bag out from underneath her before letting herself plop back down against the floor. Leaned forward again to stare at the guitar one more time, as she ran her hands along the strings carefully, noiselessly. Strings that had callused the pads of her fingers until they no longer hurt, that had been picked and struck until they had to be replaced. These ones hadn't needed to be replaced for some time. And those calluses could no longer be felt.

Slid it back in its case, took her time zipping it up all the way. Time to get up.

...Wasn't 18 anymore, ahahaha. She rode out the wooziness for a few seconds until her vision had stopped sliding around and was no longer lidded with black shadow. Just the dimly lit silhouettes of two dozen abandoned amps, speakers, and sound systems, and a space on the wall between them just large enough to lean a guitar against.

It was probably about 9:40am. Came in a little early today to drop this off from her place, and she had barely gotten started on the opening routine. Her second week here, getting reacquainted with the livehouse after a few years away, and it was just starting to feel familiar again. She woke up that morning ready to drag herself out the door, turned around to check if there was anything she'd missed, and for the first time in recent memory, her eyes landed on that case.

It had been there for a long time, long past that period where she couldn't bear to look at it, long enough that it had become just part of her room. Now it was here, in a corner of nowhere, where she wouldn't have to look at it any more.

She stared at it for a long while a few steps away, feeling something, before tearing herself away. She couldn't help but look back at it one more time as she closed the door behind her.

See you later, someday. My friend.

She headed back up the stairs. The lights had been left off, and the lobby was eerily still. Through the glass windows, she could see goose feathers of snow floating down without a sound. She would have to shovel a path to the street later. But before that, there were still a few things left to be done.

Marina sighed, and put on the best smile she could manage. It was a little weak, and without concentrating, quickly faded to something weary, yet at peace. Good enough, she thought, and hauled herself up the last few stairs, leaving a little bloom of blue in the darkness behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Rejected titles  
> \--"Games" - After taking some time to think about it, I did not think it was a very good title.  
> \--"Tales of games" - Easily confused with popular JRPG series of "Tales of" games or the game development studio behind cult RPGMaker classic Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden "Tales of Game's".  
> \--"Lost Dream Generations" - Not here. Maybe later.
> 
> \- Story title comes from one of the greatest videos of all time, which I will not link here. If you ask me on Twitter, I shall tell you. @shidiand
> 
> \- Chapter title comes from an album a friend named Nah showed me once. There's no more or no less meaning than that. It's a good album, though. It's just the right mood.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctbqe9MKMww
> 
> \- Thank you for reading.


	2. Thank you for playing!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was nothing left for Rinko in that world.
> 
> Added new tags - "Morbid thoughts"

A thin sweat had begun to stick to the back of her clothes. It was a sensation of filth and heaviness on her skin that Rinko tried not to notice, that hopefully wasn't soaking into the back of her chair.

The AC in the living area didn't reach her room, which was as far away as possible from the rest of the house. Rinko had decided that she was okay with that. Instead, a tiny plastic fan perched on her desk, turning side to side. She had tried keeping it still, but the continuous breeze had only ended up bothering her. At regular intervals, it blew her bangs, which were just starting to get long, into her eyes, and rustled the corners of loose paper. Either way, it wasn't enough to overcome the humid summer heat, but there was nothing Rinko could do about that. So Rinko sweated.

Behind the fan was a pincushion with a lonely pair of needles stuck in it, and besides the pincushion was the stack of Rinko's summer homework. She had finished it two weeks ago. She could have left it unfinished, and perhaps some part of her was tempted to, but it just didn't sit right with her to leave it undone. Homework was simple and straightforward; something she at least knew how to do, and had always done without much trouble. Mom had walked in on her working on it at the time and cooed something about her always being so smart and so diligent. Something like that. Rinko had heard words like those many times before; they blended together easily. But with that out of the way, her parents had no reason to interrupt her time in her room, and mostly left her alone, except to call her to the dinner table for meals, or drag her along to the occasional weekend family gathering.

Behind the desk was a dress, and on top of the desk, standing in the middle, was a monitor. Neo Fantasy Online, it said. You have successfully been logged out. Rinko looked away from the monitor again. The rest of her room was dark. The blinds had been pulled shut the whole day to keep out the sunlight, but the only light coming from outside now were the blurry orange dots of streetlights. Rinko turned back to stare at the monitor. At some point the NFO logo had ceased to register as a stylish, blue-rimmed, eye-catching design. It was just "the NFO logo".

After two and a half years of playing, Rinko had gotten as far as she could by herself. She had ground out the level cap, maxed out all the skills she cared about, completed all the trivial sidequests she could clear with their piddling rewards, just to read a little more about the world. It was a good world, Rinko thought. It was a beautiful world. At times she thought it was even more beautiful than this one. Its environments were gorgeous, its outfits elaborate and fantastical (as Rinko sat there drenched, in the lightest long-sleeved shirt she owned, sleeves hitched up to the elbow,) and it was full of lively NPCs who would talk to her and tell her all about their lives.

But Rinko had done all that, and now there was nothing left to do. She could retry the main story quest she had failed for the last nine months. She had retried it many times, mostly in the first month, then less frequently as she began to lose hope. The last time had been four months ago, when she reached max level. But there was a certain point in the game where it seemed the developers had intended for players to start taking on bosses in organized groups, and there Rinko had hit her wall. And that was that.

The possibilities promised by summer vacation had seemed endless during the last weeks of the school semester. With nothing but free time, she had eagerly submerged herself in NFO, until she realized once more that it had nothing left for her. Two weeks to work up the resolve to quit.

No NFO. No homework. There wasn't much for her to do afterwards, but she had made up her mind. She was tired. Tired of... of things. And there was something darkly appealing about walking away. Cut off this lingering attachment.

The overpowering daytime heat had already dissipated from her room. The sun had set long enough ago, and it was late. On another night, Rinko would have stayed up longer, aimlessly clutching onto the last few minutes of the waking day just to stave off tomorrow. Rinko caught herself staring blankly into the light of the monitor, even now. But there was no need for that any more. Might as well prepare for bed. With reluctance, dread, and relief in uncertain measure, she took her nightclothes and headed to the bathroom to wash away her sweat.

Tomorrow, and then, the day after that. At last, this time, she would do it.

\-----

On the last day that she would play Neo Fantasy Online, Rinko had nothing planned.

She logged in, and closed the daily missions window reflexively. Just thinking about them seemed like too much for her to bear. As fast as the game would allow, Rinko teleported out of the main city filled with overlapping bodies to the western farmlands, and without much thought, let her character walk. Fire wizards suffered from lackluster mobility, but their walkspeed was just the same as any other class. And she wondered what she should do.

At times, Rinko found herself seized by an overwhelming weariness of constantly pressing buttons and issuing commands. Mindlessly working towards the next task she had to accomplish, whatever grind she had fallen into so naturally. In school, she could push through and squeeze out a last few math problems or a passable three-paragraph essay, but here there was nothing at risk, nor anything to gain, so Rinko gave in to the comforting embrace of apathy. She took her hands off her keyboard and watched the fields of endless gold ripple in the wind.

She had done this a number of times over the few days. It was pointless, and slow, and uneventful, and yet by the end of each voyage, Rinko would look up to see that much time had passed by, in-game and out-. Even 40 minutes could disappear without her notice. Maybe that was a short period of time, compared to other things, but Rinko did not know if one hour, two hours passing by would be a relief, or a worry. But for however long, over the course of an in-game day, Rinko could catch a part of the show of the sky, gradating from youthful blue to a burning nectarine, sunlight peeking behind passing clouds, until a deep and star-speckled purple spanned the horizon and she would feel restful... still weary, but at peace. It was nice.

Rinko thought about just spending tomorrow walking to the horizon, too. Then the day after, then the next. But eventually, Rinko thought, with a bit of sadness, would she grow tired of that peace? Wouldn't it be fine to end it on nice terms?

Presently the background music of the fields that had become so familiar faded away into another song, one whose first few gentle notes often filled her head in the emptiness of a quiet room. The theme of the Forest of the Archtrees that she had farmed countless mobs to flowed around her character as she continued her trek, occasionally bobbing up and down over tree roots or walking head-on into tree trunks until she eventually slid around them. Even this, Rinko found relaxing, watching that hypnotic and unhurried stride, undisturbed by temporary obstacles.

Rinko's wizard had been wrestling with the geometry of a particularly dogged greatwood for several minutes when a group of players began to wordlessly emerge from the path behind her. Curious, and secretly a little bit grateful for the interruption, Rinko turned her camera to watch them take on the low level mobs. A fighter, a ranger, two berserkers, thirteen assassins and twenty-one chrysaors barreled out from behind the bend in a cacophony of damage skill activation noises, haphazardly beelining from monster to monster like a flock of pigeons discovering a magic trail of spontaneously appearing breadcrumbs.

Soon, all the most valuable monsters in the area had been felled, and the feral pack of DPS players milled on over to the next clearing, beyond Rinko's draw distance. Rinko watched them go, wondering what it was like in that guild, not for the first time.

Maybe they could have been friends. Or maybe they were a silent pub guild. Maybe they could have gone on to clear Molten Temple together. Rinko fantasized.

But there had been a lot of them, and that scared her. Rinko had trouble speaking to a single person. Even for people she knew, her parents or her teachers, she couldn't look them in the eye. They always told her to repeat herself. Stop mumbling. Next time say it louder the first time. And that just made her not want to try talking in the first place. So talking to people she didn't know, thirty-eight of them... if they talked to her... Rinko felt a crawling sensation on her skin.

So it was fine. She was going to stop playing anyways. Meeting some guild on her last day of NFO wasn't going to change that. Rinko started to feel relieved; it would not have gone well anyways. She was glad that they had all moved on and left the area.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Ok are you reADY TO

Well, most of them.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ SEE THE

The player took a few steps before zigging back the other way.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ POWE

Another very short set of steps before pausing. Besides them, a skeleton warrior started to move in a different direction.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ POWER

It seemed to Rinko that the lone straggler and their skeletal minion had been too preoccupied to keep up with the rest of the group. Currently they appeared to be preoccupied with walking into the attack of one of the trash drop enemies that the others had left untouched.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ OF THE BIGGEST, DrkeswwasdwaAWSSSSSSSASDADSああああｓｗ３ｄあ  
_akoiscool6666 was knocked out by Magic Tree Bark._

The micromanagement of the skeleton showed an immediate improvement once its master no longer needed commands. It began to swipe furiously at the enemy for a few seconds before walking into a second beefy, wooden swing and collapsing into a pile of bones.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ D  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ F

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ f

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Guys help

Rinko realized her character was still stuck walking face-first into the tree and put her hand back on the keyboard. She looked back in the direction that the group had moved on to. The guys did not seem to be forthcoming.

Rinko hovered her cursor over the downed player for a few seconds. By this time, the monster had wandered off back into its tree, having lost interest in doing donuts over the body of its victim. If the guild wasn't going to res them, no one would... Rinko knew this from experience.

People used to revive others more often back when she started playing. She could still remember the first time she'd been picked up by a stranger. She had been so overwhelmed with relief and gratitude and anxiety that she didn't know what to say, so she'd just used the canned "Thank you!" emote and jumped up and down until her savior waved goodbye. But at some point people had stopped doing it.

But it wasn't as if she was going to do anything with her materials after today.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ guys..........

Rinko squeezed her eyes shut. One person. Just one person. She could do this.

She self-cast Blind Curtain for invisibility and walked as fast as her Fire Wizard legs could carry her to the necromancer. "Do you want to resurrect akoiscool6666? This will cost you (31/1) Phoenix Plumes, (120/2) Angel's Stardust, (579/5) Master Reagent, and 10k gold." She clicked "Yes" and waited. Rinko stared at the resurrection progress bar as if staring at it could make it fill any faster.

The bar popped. Her first instinct was to bolt for the trees, but she squashed that urge down, took a deep, shuddering breath. Rinko opened up the chat bar to type a message to the other player, and...

Rinko stared at the empty message box.

She'd had something planned but now... The first half of it echoed in her head but the idea of typing it out suddenly seemed stupid. Something else? Her mind went blank. The first words of the idea came back, only to be replaced by doubts and another unformed idea, which came back to the first idea that she couldn't remember anything about... Her eyes began to feel heavy as they bored into the screen.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ OMG

_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ WAIT

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ WHO REVIVED ME

Rinko became painfully aware of the keys beneath her unmoving fingertips, their shape, the faint stickiness of sweat.

Something like disgust bubbled up from the pit of her stomach.

Did you really think this might be the one you could finally make friends with? Did you really think they might save you?

Rinko's mouth tasted bitter. Even now, she couldn't find the words she wanted to say. She exhaled sharply through her nose. Disappointment? Resignation? To the very last, she found herself unable to reach out to another person.

Then, if that was the case. There was no point in sticking around any longer. She opened the menu to log out, and paused.

A whim.  
A lust for destruction, so that she wouldn't be tempted to return.

She clicked on the 30 Phoenix Plumes, 118 Angel's Stardust, 574 Master Reagents, 440k gold. Dropped them on the floor.

Her invisibility wore off.

She looked at the necromancer once more, in her mismatched Common equipment, and unequipped her wizard hat. Dropped it too.

Take it.

_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ OH!!!

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ THANK U

The necromancer began bouncing up and down and strafing in circles repeatedly.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ THANK UTHANK UTHANK UTHANK UTHANK UTHANK U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She felt a little tinge of satisfaction at their happiness. But the idea of basking in her own generosity made Rinko uncomfortable. She had made her decision, and as wordlessly as she had arrived, she would disappear. So Rinko clicked the Log Out button, and slumped back into her chair, staring at that monitor for a while.

It was all over now.

Rinko had thought that she would feel at peace afterwards. At the moment, she only felt empty.

It was still light out. Brilliant rays of white cut into her room through her blinds. Curious, Rinko leaned over and pulled them aside for a moment to peek at the blazing world outside. She caught a glimpse of the sun hanging high in the cloudless sky, mercilessly beating down on the yellowing grass and sun-parched trees before she let them fall back in place. There was still time left in the day. ...Rinko spent a few more minutes staring at the monitor.

Rinko stood up, limbered around for a moment. The sun was too high to leave the house, but she suddenly felt like she wanted to walk around a bit. After some deliberation, she tucked the pincushion underneath her pile of homework, changed into a t-shirt, and wandered out of her room to see what her parents were doing.

\-----

It was not long until Rinko returned to her bedroom again. She had hovered around behind her mom for a minute, not knowing what to say, and been rewarded with a passing comment about how nice it was to see her out of her room, and how long her hair was getting, you need to go get a haircut soon. It was a reminder of how little she had to talk about with her parents. She did not bother to talk to her father afterwards.

Rinko lifted the cover of the piano in her room, and spent some time flipping through loose leafs of sheet music that she had printed out off the internet. Another hour disappeared idly, spent stumbling through an unambitious arrangement of an antique anime OP, before she eased the cover of the piano back down and slipped off the piano stool. She pulled a book out from the shelf. Glanced at the title, put it back. She scoured the spines on the shelf again, passing over textbooks and fantasy novels, until a tiny little paperback caught her eye. This one... She hadn't read it in a while. Well. She hadn't read any books in a while.

She settled back into her chair at the desk. It was either over here or on her bed, and the lighting was a little better here. With her fingers on the corner of the first page, she checked her desktop one last time. A single red (1) had appeared at the bottom of the NFO client. Rinko's heartbeat quickened.

 _[Offline] akoiscool6666:_ hey... THANK U SO MUCH for reviving me and giving me all these mats, oneechan said I should give you something in return but I dont know what I can give you back ): but I hope its still ok if I add you as a friend :D

Thank u so much rinrin!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're super cool!!!

Reading her character's name gave Rinko a little feeling of warmth. But underneath that message was a friend request. Rinko hesitated. She didn't want to break this person's heart by clicking the decline button.

She spent a long minute reading and rereading that message a few more times, before she finally minimized the client and picked up her book again.

The sun through her blinds was already starting to turn orange, reminding her of times spent reading with her back to the setting sun, til the dusk settled and her mom found her and told her to go turn on a lamp. With a feeling of peace, or perhaps, anxiety, Rinko began to read. If she could just finish this story before she had to go to sleep for tomorrow...

But when she next looked up from the pages of her paperback, it was far later than she had planned, and she was still too many chapters away from the end. A sigh of defeat worked its way loose from her body, and Rinko reluctantly decided to go wash up for the night. She was still wearing that t-shirt as she shuffled out of her room.

\-----

All too soon, it was morning. Rinko awoke to an insistent beeping by her bedside, loud enough to wake her but quiet enough to be discreet. Her eyes still felt red after her shortened sleep, but she could see that it was indeed 5:25 am.

The light shining from outside was still feeble. Rinko pulled the blinds aside once more to look. The sky high above her head was rich with lingering night, but near the horizon, the sun behind the rooftops was just beginning to pale the sky. A faint and chilly wind blew in through the open window. Rinko shivered. She eased out the dress from behind the desk and got changed.

The monitor on her desk had been left off at night, but the little lights on the desktop case were flickering. It would... probably be good to power it off. After months of being left on overnight, her faithful desktop deserved that much. For a moment, Rinko felt a little bad about the power bill she had caused her parents, too.

Turning on the monitor to shut her computer down properly, she glanced at the NFO client again. akoiscool6666's friend request remained unanswered in her direct messages, but their status showed that they were online right now, in the Forest of the Archtrees.

Rinko looked back at her alarm clock. There were no sounds of traffic outside; the world was still. The first trains would be running by now, yet most people would still be asleep. If there was a good time to head out, it was now.

But the unknown world scared Rinko, even on this day. It made the thought of indulging in this meaningless curiosity all the more tempting. And without her noticing, she found herself rereading the message akoiscool6666 had sent her again, already blinking back tears within her eyes before they could water up.

Rinko turned away from the clock, just for a moment, and quietly clicked Accept on the request.

She logged in and made her way to the forest. Her map showed that akoiscool6666 (ako? Rinko settled on this for now) was still at the first 1/3 mark of the zone, and as she drew closer she could see the necromancer themself, working their way through several Thorncrawlers. Rinko stayed within the edge of the treeline, and watched as ako slowly circled around the mobs, keeping their skeleton warrior between them and the enemies while they cast Soul Fists into the center. Actually, ako didn't need to move their necromancer since the mobs were busy chasing the skeleton, but it seemed to be working anyways. ako was doing better than Rinko expected, working their strategy in silence.

The crawlers were down to about 30% life as ako approached the end of their revolution opposite Rinko, and suddenly their movement started to get sloppy again.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ OH

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Its TIME

Ah...

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ for MY

ako made a few hasty adjustments to their positioning. Rinko suddenly understood why ako had been doing so much better than yesterday.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ ULTIMATE DARK

More adjustments. The crawlers made contact with the skeleton for a moment before ako pulled it away.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ ATTACK FROM THE

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ THEUHHHHH

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ UMMM

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ UMMMMMMM

Rinko realized that her face had taken on a pained expression from watching this.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ THE

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ THE THE THE

Rinko started to type something impulsively, but caught herself and deleted it.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ TH EDARKEST

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ PLACE

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ SUPER DAr  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ S  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ SUPER DARK DRAGON BLASTTTTTTTTT

And with that, ako fired a Soul Destruction that very nearly killed the monsters. They survived and subsequently tore their unmoving skeleton warrior to pieces. Rinko watched ako finish off the crawlers with desperate Soul Fists as they almost killed them too.

Rinko sighed with relief. That had been... exciting, maybe. Her curiosity had been sated. ako seemed to be doing alright. She was glad.

5:40.

Okay.

Okay.

Time to go.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ rinrin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ako ran over to where Rinko's character was standing in the treeline.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ How was my attack?? Was it cool!!!

Rinko was petrified. This did not show through Rinko's character since she had been standing still anyways. Rinko had enough presence of mind to make her wizard nod before she went back to panicking.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ :DDDDD  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Thank u!!!  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ *you!!!

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Do u  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Do you want to do the rest of the area together???

Rinko froze up. Her immediate thought was to answer with a no.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Its ok if uyou don't want to thogh  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ *though  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ i can do it by myself I think but its

But... they were giving her a chance to say no. Rinko was struck by how considerate ako was being to her. This was... This was alright. Rinko worked up her courage and clicked the nod emote fiercely with her trembling hand.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ more fun ifRINRIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ OMG

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ako set off down the forest path at a run and Rinko realized she should follow.

And so Rinko followed ako through the Forest of the Archtrees, and tried not to one-shot all the Lv14 enemies with her Lv60 fireballs, so that ako could get some of the killing blows and not feel weak. ako would pick up the drops and then try to give half of them to Rinko, and Rinko would pick them up and then drop them back in front of ako, who would insistently drop them back in front of Rinko. They repeated this charade several times. Rinko started dropping stacks of 99 Archtree Branches from her reserve inventory.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ OK OK

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ LOL

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Ur sure you dont need it?  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ *You're

Rinko shook her head.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Ok  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Idk what I have for u to use though ):

Another shake.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ no but really I dont have anything good

Rinko thought for a moment about how to communicate this without typing. This was actually a little fun for her to think about. She moved forward in the direction of the next clearing and started casting random spells towards it. Fireball, pillar, fireball, fireball. Rinko paused to look back at ako.

After a pause of their own, ako seemed to understand, and without typing a reply, ran after her into the next area.

\-----

They settled into a comfortable rhythm, progressing steadily through Forest of Archtrees. ako seemed to have quieted down compared to earlier, playing better, yet leaving an absence of cries and incantations in the chat. But after every few pods of monsters, ako would type something out to the two of them unprompted:

_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ WOAH  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ i amlost died there but you saved me just in time!!!

_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ WHAT WAS THAT SPELL OMG  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ IVE NEVER SEEN TAHT  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ CAN I LEARN THAT TOO

_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ were doing great!  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ *Were

_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ OH SHIT A TREE  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ oops sorry

And Rinko did her best to reply with her limited emotes.

And in this way, they cleared Forest of Archtrees, and ako asked if she wanted to run another dungeon. Rinko found that she didn't mind. So they ran Rogolo Mine, Bryllan Ravine, the Blossoming Dunes...

They were halfway through Fieldfare Mountain when ako spoke up once more.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ awww  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Sorry rinrin ): I gotta stop for now DX  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ oneechan caught me on the computer and found out that I got up really early to play NFO again  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Dw she's not mad oneechan is really nice!  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ but im probably not going to be allowed back on until later tonight......  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ So i gues I gotta say see u later ):

Rinko's spirits fell as she read through the messages. The sensation of disappointment that tugged at her heart was foreign, but she had a suspicion of what it might be. God, let her be able to type out something, anything...! Rinko opened the chat box to write something warmer, more honest than just 'bye',

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Wait I forgot i was going to give this back  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ You dropped this by accident before right? when u gave me all the rez mats

An item appeared at ako's feet. It was Rinko's Mythic wizard hat. Only now did Rinko realize that ako had been wearing the same necromancer Commons for the entirety of their raids.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ I spent a lot of thos already rezing ppl like you told me to but I thought you must have dropped it by mistake so i held on to it for you :DD

Rinko picked it up, and put it back on her character.

Rinko didn't like to look at herself, even in-game, but for the first time in a long time, she looked, with careful eyes.

It was not a large hat. But on her character, in conjunction with her robes, the quiet, majestic wisdom it suggested was... right.

Rinrin the Fire Wizard was herself once more.

Having these sentimental feelings about her virtual character made Rinko a little embarrassed, but... there really was something strange in her heart, just from looking at her character.

 _[Area] akoiscool6666:_ YOU LOOK SO COOL RINRIN!!!!!!!  
_[Area] akoiscool6666:_ Okokok oneechan is telling me to log off again

Rinko had to type something fast.

 _[Area] rinrin:_ w

Something longer than that. She wanted to think ako had stopped moving to read what she had to say but maybe they were just clicking through the menu to get to the Log Out buton. She probably wouldn't be able to type out what she wanted to say in time. Better make it a direct message.

The words came to her slowly, and it took her a few tries to get them right.

_[Online] rinrin:_ thank you for playing nfo with me. it was

 _[Online] rinrin:_ really fun. i'll try to be on tonight too.

 _[Online] rinrin:_ next time when you do your ultimate attack

 _[Online] rinrin:_ you could say "from the chasm of the abyss"

 _[Online] rinrin:_ ?

 _[Online] rinrin:_ maybe "the obsidian depths"

 _[Online] rinrin:_ whatever you think sounds best

 _[Online] rinrin:_ thank you again ako

There was no reply. ako had long since logged off. But Rinko knew that they would see her messages eventually.

It was still cold in the house, but the morning light through the blinds had warmth. The sensation of poor sleep and unrested eyes caught up to her now. Chill and warmth, ache and hunger. They were reminders of life.

Rinko looked back at her alarm clock again. It was 8:27. The time of stillness had long since passed. Not today, then. But the sun outside would still be bearable for a while longer. There were strange feelings she needed to sort out. Rinko decided to go out for a walk.

She got changed again, and slipped out of her bedroom.

Her parents paid her no mind as she stepped out of the house. The sunlight prickled her skin, but Rinko paid it no mind; her thoughts were elsewhere as she walked a morning walk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Chapter title. Could be read either of two ways.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VhtIoDMKeQ  
> Twitter user Sekundii did not know about the topic of this chapter while it was being written, but somehow managed to allude to its title unprompted anyways.
> 
> \- Some in-game OST.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBt3wy7zZ6s  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf24Yg7CX-Q  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTU-jTmWr-k  
> I have not played these games.
> 
> \- I used to open Google Earth on those school computers back in elementary school and start up the flight simulator cause I didn't want to get caught on the Flash game websites. But I was too afraid of crashing to take off the ground, so I'd set the mouse aside and taxi the plane across province valleys and the Himalayas, up and down sheer cliffs.
> 
> \- Three Days of Happiness, by Sugaru Miaki.  
> https://vgperson.com/novels.php?n=threedays&c=1-4  
> It is a book I haven't read in several years, but I remain fond of it to this day.  
> Please note that it is a story that contains morbid thoughts about ceasing to exist.
> 
> \- https://i.imgur.com/t9MmoAT.png


End file.
